P-Day update week 83, 09/18/2023
Muy buenos dias a todos ustedes!
This week has been full of a lot of ups and downs! Mainly ups, and just a couple of downs haha! The Lord is still working by our side in this area and I'm excited to keep it up! We've found some new friends that are so elect!! It's been amazing being able to teach these people and see how the Lord has been preparing them to find us and be a part of this work.
Okay there are some really cool things that happened this week that I would like to share with all of you. First thing on the this is that this week we had our interviews with President and our Zone Conference!! I'm sure I've mentioned before how much I love the week of interviews and Zone Conference, it's a very spiritual time. A time to receive revelation and a spiritual charge to finish off the transfer! Like always we got ready for our interviews and went to the stake center the morning of to let everyone in and get the party started haha! This time around I was the first missionary to go into interviews with President. But before that I was able to say hi to all my Xalapa office buddies! This time around the Coordinators (my assignment when I was in the offices) traveled around the missionaries with President to help missionaries take English tests and give us a little training in the Zone Conference (why couldn't I ever do that?!?! Haha!!!). So I was also able to say hi to them! But anyway back to my interview. When I got in President Villanueva told me that there are three things the church wants me (and all the other missionaries) to have before I return home. They are: 1. A strong testimony of Jesus Christ. 2. The ability to speak a second language. And 3. Good technology habits. President Villanueva is constantly talking about how after our missions the church is not done with us, and how important it is to prepare for what happens after our mission! It's been a little different than my previous mission Presidents who very rarely talked about home! President Villanueva gave me a lot of tips and council about what's to come. He told me that he wants me to start preparing the most I can for what happens after. Here in the mission we use a word "trunky" to describe a missionary who is thinking a lot about home and ready to pack up his trunk and go! President Villanueva told me that if I'm going to get trunky that I should get REALLY trunky, he explained, I need to start making plans for after my mission, and on my P-Days I should use my time to start planning and getting things in order so when I get home I can hit the ground running and not lose the momentum I've gained here on my mission! It's weird because I still have a little more than 4 months left before I go home but he stressed how important it is to get ready now!! After my interview I just kinda popped around chatting until my companion finished up and we were able to leave! I felt really pumped after leaving! I love my mission Presidents and I love my mission!!
Two days following the interviews was the day of the Conference itself! In preparation for the conference we made ties with the colors of the Mexican flag for the Mexican independence day! They turned out really cool! We also had to prepare before hand a special musical number as a district and our classes that we were going to give. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before hand but President Villanueva told us in the last MLC that the Zone Leaders were 100% in charge of organizing the Zone Conferences with the other Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders! That means we were in charge of the classes (besides the ones brought by the office), the food, the decorations, the technology, the program, EVERYTHING! It was stressful at first but really it turned out not being too bad after we started to plan, and the conference was awesome! To start the day off we had to get up at 4:15 am to leave the house on-time to get our bus that left at 5:30 am!! It wasn't that bad since the trip is 2 hours long so I could sleep through it and recuperate! I also decided to bring this little stuffy that I have, so foe context here in Mexico there is a chain of pharmacies called "Farmacias Similiares" which is known to sell the same medicine but a generic brand so its super cheap! They also sell stuffed "Doctor Simi" who is the mascot. And everyone now and then they come out with a special edition doctor Simi, and this year for the Mexican independence day they came out with a limited edition Doctor Simi in a "traje de charro" aka "Simi Charro"! I brought him with me for some cool fotos and he turned out to be the star of the event!
Presidente Villanueva and Simi Charro |
Zone Conference! |
The three Champions in the zone for their final funeral pic! |
You can't get me out of Teziutlan! |
So let's talk about how the conference itself went, really truly it was soooo good!! It was one of my favorite Zone Conferences I've ever been to! It felt like President and the office missionaries came to our Zone Conference instead of us going to theirs, which caused a very interesting dynamic! But it turned out to be a very spiritual experience, the Spirit was so strong there and I felt it throughout the entire conference! Even though were all having such a nice spirit with us we were still able to enjoy the conference with a few jokes here and there! So to briefly mention what we learned I'll have yall think about the 3 points President mentioned to me in my interview. We talked mainly about how our non-English speaking companions in the mission should all learn English before the go home, and how all of us need to learn proper Technology habits now, that is one of the reasons they gave us each our own cellphone. We also talked a bit about acting with faith when we plan and the importance of our personal happiness or rather choosing to be happy. And the importance of companionship study and council, to help us learn and strengthen our companionship bonds! Also like I mentioned our district had the opportunity to sing a special musical number! For the past couple weeks we've been practicing every chance we had, and it turned out really pretty! It was a combination of "I'll go where you want me to go" and "I know that my savior loves me". I'll try and get a recording of it to share with y'all!! But in all it was a great conference!!
This week was a little weird since we had Zone Conference and all that jazz. But that didn't stop us from having some awesome miracles! I want to mention two new friends that we found this week that are soo good!! The first one we'll call James. Something that is interesting about these two people is that they searched out the church, we didn't find them contacting or by a reference or anything like that. They actively sought us out! James sent his information through the page "Come unto Christ" and we quickly put ourselves in contact with him and set up a lesson. The day of the lesson was the day of divisions so I wasn't there but my companion told me a bit about the lesson and how he saw a lot of potential with him! The next lesson I was able to meet him and see that he has such a hunger and thirst for the word of God! He is a young guy, just graduated from law school and is looking for a better relationship to Christ!! He has been talking with us everyday and we have made a fast friendship with him! He has already come to church and the Independence day activity, and he also has a baptismal date for the 8th of October! He actually wanted to get baptized before that but the weekend before the 8th is General Conference so he would have to wait a week to get confirmed which would make it a little less desirable! Honestly there's not much to say here, he is elect. Plain and simple. He wants to be a member of the church and change some habits, and is ready to make those changes!! I'll keep yall updated on James in these next couple weeks leading up to his baptism!!
The other friend we found this week has an interesting story. We'll call her Esther. Esther told us that when she married her husband she noticed that he had this strange blue book with golden letters called "The Book of Mormon" she said she would often look at the book and wonder what it was, but for some reason she never asked and it never came up in conversation! The years passed and her and her husband split up and she stayed with that thought of that blue book. Then one day about a week ago she decided to Google it and began to read about The Book of Mormon and the church. She decided to send a request to meet with missionaries so we could bring her a Book! The only problem is that she wasn't able to put her address in well and ended up being sent to Xalapa, but after talking with her the missionaries sent her information to Tlapacoyan which wasn't right either, and basically she got passed through about 4 companionships before she made her way to her correct area, Independencia! But before we actually had the chance to meet her she went to church in Martinez without us having to invite her! While she was there she spoke with the sisters who gave her a little tour of the church and gifted her a copy of The Book of Mormon! They also set up a lesson with her and us at our church building to pass the reference over. It was a good lesson, we talked about the message of the Plan of Salvation! In that lesson she also accepted a baptismal date for the 8th of October as well!! I see her with a lot of potential!! I'll keep yall posted with Esther!!
So to wrap up this email, this week was the week of the Mexican Independence from Spain! The entire city had been decorated with green white and red for the past couple weeks getting ready foe the celebrations! Most people use it as a time to go party but us members of the church use use it as a time to have a stake activity!! This past Saturday was the fateful day!! It honestly turned out super cool! We had our friend James with us and had the opportunity to enjoy the activity of traditional music dance and Tacos!! They also did a type of flag ceremony with a pledge of allegiance and all that jazz, I was a little unsure what to do in that situation so I hope I didn't break any laws haha! I'm half Mexican anyway ! After the activity we had to run home since it was passed our Curfew (don't worry we had permission from President), it was super cool!!
Blue eyed cat |
Well that's it for this week folks! Remember that it is due to God's love and grace that we live where we live, free to worship God as we please. Even though I'm living in Mexico I can see that this part of the world has been chosen, this is the place!
I love you all and I hope you have an excellent week!!
-Elder Garnica
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